I'm a lifelong software engineer and gamer. I started programming with a Commodore 64, then made mods for the Quake series, and eventually got my break in the game industry at Relic Entertainment, helping ship Company of Heroes in 2006. Since then I've worked on Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts, the entire Dawn of War II franchise, Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine, and Company of Heroes 2.

I'm now working in the mobile game (and app) space, which is rapidly evolving, and presents an exciting challenge. I'm also writing about my thoughts and lessons learned in game development on my website (www.karlschmidt.net) as well as here at Gamasutra.

This article is intended for students and non-engineers who haven’t heard of RCS or don’t understand the point of it. It is not an article about how to use any particular software package, but instead will outline some reasons why this tool is important.

So far I’ve had the opportunity to write code in almost every category of game programming, and they all have their perks, but simulation code can be magical. What makes writing this kind of code special?

Tracking down the source of memory corruption can be a difficult process when you don't quite know where to look. In this article I go over how I solved a corruption bug very late in the development cycle of a PC title.

From 2009-2013 I was a very active member of the Dawn of War II community, providing on-going, voluntary technical support via internet forums. It was valuable for both parties: players received help directly, and I was informed of bugs quickly.

When developing games on different platforms (or even a single one), some choose to delay or put off going through the steps to get up and running on your target hardware. This should be one of the first things you do, and here is why.

I agree with you - workflow is huge, you just have to make sure you 're building the right thing first. Once that is done for the most part , definitely improve the pipeline along the way. It 's a balancing act.

Good piece, I feel the same way. How are you finding starting your own company I feel like the business side of things will take away from the fun and creativity similar to working at a large company would, just in a different way. I 'm curious about your thoughts ...